State-fundedFree schools · Blackpool · FY4 1TL
All-through (primary + secondary) · ages 3–16
Armfield Academy is a state-funded school in Blackpool, teaching pupils aged 3 to 16.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -1.112nd percentile | -1.013rd percentile | — | -1.062nd percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 35.215th percentile | 36.117th percentile | — | 35.614th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -1.11 — well below average, the 2nd percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 1.11 of a grade per subject lower than pupils across England who had the same results at the end of primary school.
The 95% confidence interval for 2023–24 runs -1.34 to -0.88. That sits entirely below zero, so the below-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has fallen in each of the years shown (2022–23 to 2023–24) — worth asking the school about at an open evening.
Attainment 8 is the average grade pupils leave with across eight GCSEs; it tells you where they ended up, and tracks the intake a school admits as much as anything the school does. Progress 8 compares those grades with pupils nationally who had the same results at the end of primary school, so it is the better measure of what a school added.
| Grade 5+ in English & Maths | 22%17th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 3.2222nd percentile |
A school can post a respectable overall score while coasting one group and carrying the average on another. The row that matters to you is the one your own child sits in.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower starters | -0.66 | -1.07 | — | -0.86 |
| Middle starters | -1.11 | -1.06 | — | -1.08 |
| Higher starters | -1.50 | -0.81 | — | -1.16 |
180 families named this school first for 159 places for 2026 entry — 1.13 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 1.13× | 1.31× | 0.85× |
This is how sought-after a school is, not how good it is — demand tracks house prices and older siblings as much as anything a school does. It is also not your chance of getting in: a school with two applicants per place can still admit everyone living near it, while a less popular school a mile further away turns you down. Distance is usually what decides it, and that depends on your address.
| Overall absence | 9.8%33rd percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 30.8%27th percentile |
Absence is worth reading next to results: it is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average. Across the schools in this dataset the overall absence rate averages 9.0%, so this school is above the norm.
Good
A legacy overall effectiveness grade, from an inspection before Ofsted retired the single headline grade in 2025.
The GCSE results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, which describes pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers where pupils go next, A-level or sixth-form results, pastoral care, how far a school pushes music, sport or drama, or how it feels to walk around — and those are the things parents most often say settled it. Visit at an open evening before you rank a school.
Nor is any of it a prediction of a place. Whether your child is offered one depends on the school's admission criteria and, most often, on how far you live from the gate.
See Armfield Academy on the map →Compare it with every other secondary school nearby, filter on results, admissions pressure or Ofsted, and sort the schools closest to your own postcode.